In 1895
Muḥammad ibn 'Abdallāh Hassan began his preaching in Berbera, the administrative centre of
British Somaliland, lashing out not only against some of the traditional Somali customs, which showed little respect for religious rites, but also against the penetration of Christian missionaries in the region, and therefore against the colonial policy of the British. The preaching obtained little results in Berbera, where the majority of the population was faithful to the
Qadiriyya brotherhood, and in 1897 Abdullah Hassan retired to Kirrit, in the interior regions, to his maternal clan of the Dhulbahante: having founded his own brotherhood, he began his preaching work again, aiming at a strong anti-Western charge and announcing a jihad against the foreign colonisers, British and Ethiopians in particular. In an attempt to overcome the age-old tribal and clan divisions of the Somalis, the
mullah ("master") sought to found a community united by the common Islamic faith, defining his followers not with the names of their respective tribes but with the all-encompassing term of
daraawiish, or the "dervishes ". On 12 April 1899, the British Consul General in
Berbera,
James Hayes Sadler, sent a first report on Abdullah Hassan's activities to the Foreign Office in London, estimating that he had already gathered around 3,000 followers; in the following August, the Mullah gathered around 5,000 armed men, 200 of whom were equipped with modern rifles, in the town of
Burao, then carrying out a first raid against the town of Sheikh, less than 100 kilometres from Berbera, whose inhabitants had not responded to his appeals. In March 1900, dervishes began attacking merchant caravans from
Harar into Ogaden territory, provoking a reaction from the Ethiopians: a column of 1,500 men under Gerazmatch Bante carried out punitive raids into the Ogaden, but was later attacked at Jijiga by nearly 6,000 dervishes led by the Mullah at the
Battle of Jigjiga. Both sides claimed victory following the battle; the improved availability of modern rifles enabled the Ethiopians to inflicted heavy losses on the attackers. Although suffering heavy casualties during the attack, the dervishes accomplished their objective of returning all the livestock confiscated by the Abyssinians. This raid allowed Abdullah Hassan to gather even more followers among the Ogaden, and he then began to push his raids even beyond the frontier into
British Somaliland where he raided the non-Dervish
Qadariyyah clans for their camels and arms. In the spring of 1901, the British and Ethiopians decided to mount a joint expedition against the rebels: 1,500 Somali mercenaries, under British officers, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel
Eric John Eagles Swayne, moved from the north against the village of Jahelli, where the Mullah was quartered, while from Harar 15,000 Ethiopians headed east; mostly mounted on horseback, the dervishes managed to elude the slow-moving Ethiopian army and, although they were three times engaged in combat by the British, avoided defeat. After three months of campaigning, the Mullah led his warriors safely across the border into Mijiurtinia, forcing the British to call off their pursuit. Although Migiurtinia had to suffer in April 1901 a joint punitive expedition by the Italians and Hobyo for the support given to the dervishes, Sultan Osman Mahamuud continued to provide support to the Somali rebels both in terms of supplies of rifles and ammunition, and by providing safe havens where the Mullah could reorganise his forces. In October 1901 Abdullah Hassan brought his warriors, now numbering 12,000 men and 1,000 rifles, back to southern Somaliland, beginning a series of raids against the possessions of the Dhulbahante clan, who were hostile to him; At the same time, the Mullah kept his agreement with Osman Mahamuud and also led a series of attacks against Hoybo, capturing the important town of
Galkayo in the summer of 1902 and pillaging the lands of the vassals of Sultan
Yusuf Ali Kenadid. The renewed activity of the dervishes forced the British to organize a new campaign, and Colonel Swayne gathered a contingent of 2,300 men between Somali recruits and African regulars of the
King's African Rifles, also equipped with cannons and machine guns; After some initial successes, on 6 October 1902 Swayne's force was ambushed by Dervishes while crossing the bush near the village of Erigo: the Somali recruits collapsed, causing the entire contingent to retreat in disarray towards Buuhoodle and the abandonment of a Maxim machine gun in the hands of the rebels.
February–June 1903 The British became convinced of their need of Italian assistance. In 1903, the Italian
Foreign Ministry permitted the British to land forces at
Hobyo (Obbia). An Italian naval commander off Hobyo feared "that the expedition will end in a fiasco; the Mad Mullah will become a myth for the British, who will never come across him, and a serious worry for ... our sphere of influence." The relationship between Hobyo and Italy soured when Sultan Kenadid refused the Italians' proposal to allow British troops to disembark in his Sultanate so that they might then pursue their battle against
Diiriye Guure's Dervish forces. In May, the British
Foreign Office realised the error, and had Kenadid's son appointed regent, just in time to forestall an attack in
Mudug by the Sultan's army. In early March 1903 the operation began. 5,000 Ethiopians left Harar to head towards Gheledi, along the course of the
Shebelle River river, in order to cut off the Dervishes' retreat towards the south. Simultaneously, the British columns starting from Obbia and Berbera (composed mainly of Sudanese, Indian and Yao troops), under the command of
William Manning, moved towards
Galkayo to trap the
Mullah's forces in a pocket. The more agile Dervishes managed to escape the trap by moving towards
Gumburu Cagaarweyne and Ual Ual, in the Ogaden region. This forced the British to advance into a territory covered in thick bush and without water. On 17 April a British advance detachment was charged by Dervish cavalry under the command of
Sultan Nur near
Gumburu, but was almost completely annihilated with the loss of 9 British officers, 187 Yao African soldiers and some machine guns. A few days later a second column was attacked at
Daratoleh and put to flight after losing a quarter of its men. The expedition ended in failure as the
Dervish annihilated the British detachment near
Gumburru and
Daratoleh. For trying to save a fellow officer, Captain Charles Bruce, during the fighting withdrawal three officers
John Gough,
George Rolland,
William George Walker were awarded Victoria Crosses. When the fight was over, a lone Dervish horseman galloped to the Dervish camp and announced that the English had been wiped out. The Mullah immediately mounted his horse, Dodimer and rode to the field of
battle. With 1,200–1,500 rifles, 4,000 ponies and some spearmen, the Dervish occupied the
Nugal Valley from Halin in the British protectorate to
Eyl (or
Illig) on the Italian-held coast. The main British force near
Galad (Galadi) under General
William Manning retreated north along the line
Bohotleh–
Burao–
Sheekh. This "old-established line" had already been breached by the Dervish when they invaded the
Nugal. By the end of June, the withdrawal was complete.
January–May 1904 === Attack on
Jidali === and
Odweyne in
British Somaliland. After the failure of General Manning's offensive, General
Charles Egerton was entrusted with a response. Following extensive preparations, he united his field force at Bacaadweeyn (Badwein) on 9 January 1904 and defeated the Mullah at
Jidali the next day. The British and their allies from Hobyo harassed the dervishes along their retreat, and lost many of his camels and livestock throughout February. ==== Battle of
Eyl ==== In early March, the second phase of operations began. The Ethiopians advanced as far as Gerlogubi but turned back in early April. The
Italian Navy bombarded
Eyl in the winter to no effect. On 16 April, three ships of the
East Indies Station under Rear Admiral
George Atkinson-Willes left Berbera planning to capture Eyl in cooperation with an advance overland. The attack on Eyl took place on 21 April. A Royal Naval detachment, reinforced by three companies of the
Royal Hampshire Regiment, stormed and captured the forts at Illig, the ships' guns supporting the attack. The British lost 3 men killed and 11 wounded, and the Dervishes 58 killed and 14 wounded. The naval detachment remained ashore for four days, assisted by an Italian naval detachment that arrived on 22 April. Control of Ilig was finally relinquished to Ali Yusuf of Hobyo. Having defeated his forces in the field and forced his retreat, the British "offered the Mullah safe conduct into permanent exile at Mecca"; the Mullah did not reply.
Giulio Pestalozza in his second meeting with the dervish October 17, 1904 was accompanied by Sylos and Paladini, two fellow Italians. After the second meeting the Mullah declared to Sheri and Pestalozza the following: After a long, three-way negotiation between the powers of Britain, Italy, Ethiopia and the Dervish, the British received a dervish delegation for a peace agreement: On 5 March 1905, the treaty of Ilig or the Pestalozza agreement was signed between the dervish and the powers, the dervish represented by The Mullah and Sultan Nur along with
Diria Arraleh and other Dervish representatives signed the final agreements Dervish peace treaty with the British, Ethiopians and Italian colonial powers on 5 March 1905, became known as the Ilig Treaty or the Pestalozza agreement.
Between 1905 and 1919 While the attention of the European powers was absorbed by the events of the
First World War, the "Dervish State" reached its maximum expansion. On 9 August 1913, a Dervish column clashed with the only British mobile force remaining in the colony, Colonel Richard Corfield's Camel Constabluray, near the
hill of Dul Madoba, destroying it and also killing its commander. And on 5 September of the following year, 60 mounted Dervishes entered western Somaliland and sacked the town of Burrao, while between 12 and 13 March 1914 a small Dervish force penetrated 500 kilometres into the colony to attack the outskirts of the capital Berbera, then sacking several villages on the way back.
Battles of Buluburte and Beledweyne Between 1915 and 1918 , the Dervish in control of southern somalia decided to attack the last italian garrisons in Tiyeeglow and Buqcabaqle. In February 1916, the dervishes advanced towards
Bulo Burti and
Tiyeglow; on the following 27 March, thanks to the betrayal of some Somali irregulars hired into the service of the Italians, The dervishes took and sacked the fort of Bulo Burti, with Colonel Bessone's
Askari forces rereating. After the recapture of Bulo Burti, an Italian column under captain Silvestri defeated and dispersed the Dervishes in the battle of
Beledweyne (16 January 1917), which was the main base of operations against Italian Somaliland. The Italian column had light casualties (6 dead and 4 wounded), while the Dervishes suffered 50 dead and numerous wounded; furthermore, the Italians captured 200 camels, depriving Dervishes of transport capabilities. The Dervishes stopped conducting significant attacks on Italian Somaliland for the rest of World War I.
1920 Faced with the evident collapse of the Dervish forces, in October 1919 the London government began preparations for a decisive campaign; A substantial expeditionary force was assembled consisting of the
Somaliland Camel Corps, a battalion of the King's African Rifles and a new arm making its appearance in the theatre for the first time, the air force: in late 1919 the Royal Air Force established an aviation unit ("Z Force") at Berbera with twelve Airco DH.9A bombers, transported to the theatre by the seaplane tender HMS Ark Royal. On 21 January 1920 the British contingent began its operations, and one bomber managed to attack the Mullah's camp at Medisce, causing confusion in the Dervish ranks; further bombing in the following days helped the attack on 25 January by the land forces, which captured the Dervish forts of Gidi Ali and Barhan. Defeated and disorganized, the Mullah managed to retreat with a nucleus of warriors to Taleh, where however he was immediately located by RAF aircraft; between 2 and 3 February the Dervish stronghold was subjected to continuous aerial bombardment, in preparation for the ground assault launched on 9 February: Abdullah Hassan and about sixty followers managed to escape before the encirclement was completed, but the demoralized garrison surrendered almost without a fight. Hunted by British troops, the Mullah managed to reach his Bagheri allies in the south, albeit with a reduced following; Now isolated from Somaliland, Abdullah Hassan tried to establish a new guerrilla centre in the valley of the
Shebelle River, but in August 1920 he suffered a new setback when his camp was attacked by 3,000 irregulars led
Haji Warabe of the
Reer Caynaashe, suffering further losses. In October 1920, he eventually settled down at Guano
Imi, at the head waters of the
Shebelle River in the
Arsi country to seek the protection of the Ethiopian authorities but on 21 December 1920 (the precise date is unclear) Abdullah Hassan died after six days of illness; the death of the Mullah effectively decreed the end of the dervish revolt. ==Notes==